


Fall and Rise

by Markov_Debris



Series: Fall and Rise [1]
Category: Doctor Who (2005), Torchwood
Genre: Angst, Homelessness, M/M, alternative universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-18
Updated: 2017-12-19
Packaged: 2019-02-16 19:20:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13060485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Markov_Debris/pseuds/Markov_Debris
Summary: Jack had been alone living on the streets of Cardiff for years but things change when a refugee from Torchwood One enters his life.





	1. Fall

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry for the delay in posting today, I hope you enjoy. By the way, I was inspired to write this by I book I had read (back in 2011), unfortunately I cannot remember what one.

“Sorry,” the soft Welsh voice made Jack Harkness look up and he saw the boy for the first time.

He obviously didn’t belong, not because he was too young, there were plenty of teenage runaways seeking sanctuary in the shelter, but because he was too clean, though he did looked slightly singed.

The boy’s eyes scanned the room, another sign that he didn’t belong.  Jack thought it was odd, most people didn’t look at them, only the shelter workers and those who had been on the streets for a while.

As Jack was contemplating this that the boy’s eyes met his, they were both a most brilliant shade of blue, and they were not a boy’s eyes, they were haunted by horrors that made even him turn away.

The boy moved passed him and found an empty bed.  He curled up tight in it and became unnaturally still.

A couple of hours later the boy woke up screaming.  One of the shelter workers tried to comfort him but he bolted out of the door, Jack wondered how long he would last.

 

On the 4th January, 2000, a team from Torchwood One had barged into the Hub.  His leadership of Torchwood Three ended after four days with him being called abnormal and locked into one of the cells.

He knew they intended to experiment on him, just as Emily and Alice had, but he hadn’t worked at Torchwood Cardiff for over a hundred years without learning how to get out of the cells.

He had escaped and gone underground.  Despair claimed Jack for he had lost all his friends and his family weren’t interested in caring about him.

After a few days he decided he was best off where he was, amongst the unnoticed homeless of Cardiff, after all the mighty Torchwood were no more likely to look at him here than anyone else.

Yet a spark of the old Jack remained, a sense of duty.  Not to Torchwood but to the memory of two people who he had loved and who left him for dead, for the other destitute people like himself who had no defence against what the Rift spat out.

Which was why when his wrist strap picked up a call about a Weevil in the park, he went to investigate.  It was stronger than he expected, more powerful and it knocked him down.

He could feel the Weevil’s teeth beginning to bite into his neck and Jack knew death was only seconds away.

Then suddenly it let go.  Through the blur of pain he saw that someone had beaten it off of him, and now the Weevil had turned to attack him.

Jack leapt up and rugby tacked the alien. 

He had made some dodgy connections while living rough.  Through them he had gotten the sedative that he stabbed into the Weevil

Clutching his neck in pain he stood up and faced his would be rescuer.  It was the boy from the other day, the one with the amazing, haunted, blue eyes.

“Thanks,” the Welshman said leaning tiredly against a tree with one hand.

“No thank you,” Jack replied

“Lucky escape,” the young man said.

“I had it all under control,” Jack replied nervously, so few people bothered to speak to him these days.

“You think so?” the Welshman replied raising a disbelieving eyebrow.

“Weevils are pretty vicious, you are... you were bleeding,” he added leaning towards Jack but not attempting to touch him.

“I’ve had worse from shaving,” Jack replied, he suspected it was his face, which had a nice thick beard that caused the smile.

The young man nodded and turned to walk away.

“Who are you?” Jack called after him, unable to follow because of the unconscious Weevil.

 “Jones, Ianto Jones,” he replied.

“Thanks for the assist Jones Ianto Jones,” Jack called after him.  “I’m Captain Jack Harkness.”

There was no reply as the Welshman was swallowed by night mist.

A few days later he was still thinking about his encounter with Jones, Ianto Jones when his wrist strap picked up Rift activity at a warehouse near his favourite place to crash.

He had to find out what it was before the goons at Torchwood Three noticed; he had to make sure his hiding place was safe.

Jack heard a screeching inside and peeked in.  He unconsciously pulled the door open wider as he saw a pterodactyl swooping across the length of the warehouse.

Then he saw the body pressed against one of the walls.  Cautiously so that he didn’t disturb the prehistoric creature Jack eased his way towards it.

The slight movement told Jack he was wrong, whoever it was they were alive.  As he got closer he realised it was Ianto Jones, asleep.

Jack couldn’t understand how Jones could possibly be asleep with the pterodactyl making all that noise but asleep he was.

The immortal shook him gently away.

“Go away,” Ianto protested.

“We have to leave there’s a pterodactyl,” Jack told him, a few seconds later he realised how absurd he must sound.

“Here give it this,” Ianto said reaching into his tatty suit pocket and pulling out a big bar of dark chocolate.

“Tell her it’s good for her serotonin levels and get out,” Ianto told him.

“Not without you,” Jack answered and lifted the protesting boy into a fireman’s carry. 

He threw the chocolate at the pterodactyl and exited the warehouse as quickly as he could.  Jack didn’t put Ianto down until they reached his hideaway.

Ianto was asleep again.  Jack looked at him, he was undernourished and exhausted.  He looked to young and innocent to be homeless but the immortal knew how cruel this world was.

He left the sleeping man to collect the few possessions the Welshman had from the warehouse with the pterodactyl.  When he returned Jack looked though them. 

There was a Torchwood London ID, which explained how Jones knew what a Weevil was, a photo of Ianto with a beautiful girl, and three hundred pounds. 

Judging from the ATM receipt, Jones had withdrawn the money weeks ago but hadn’t spent any of it.

Jack took enough to get them some hot food and woke Ianto with it when he returned.  The Welshman thanked him for it but ignored it.

“You should eat I know you’re hungry,” Jack said casually.

“What for?” Ianto asked, his voice making it clear he thought Jack was prolonging his life quite cruelly.

“Want to talk about it?  Come on you’ve nothing left to lose,” Jack coaxed after the Welshman remained silent.

“I was in the Torchwood Tower during the Battle of Canary Wharf...” Ianto began.

“The what?” Jack asked.

The look the Welshman gave him was penetrating, he wanted to know if Jack was being serious or taking the piss.  He must have decided on the former because he continued.

“Did you see the Ghosts?” Ianto asked.

“Yeah and what they turned into,” Jack said with a shiver.

“It was Yvonne Hartman’s brainchild.  A sphere fell in London through a rift in the fabric of reality.  She experimented on opening that rift to harness the power and let the ghosts through,” he began.

“The Cybermen,” Jack corrected darkly.

“Yes.  What she didn't know was that in the sphere there were Daleks.  The Cybermen opened the rift and let an army through and the Daleks had their army in the basement.  All would have been lost if it hadn’t been for the Doctor.”

“The Doctor?”

“Yes, he tracked the ghost shift to the Torchwood tower and went there to investigate.  He sent the Daleks and Cybermen into the Rift but it wasn’t enough to save us,” Ianto told him.

“You survived,” Jack said and the look he got back said the Welshman didn’t think so.

“To the Dalek’s the Torchwood employees were cannon fodder but to the cybermen we were recruits.  I was herded into a line to await Cyber-conversion.  My girlfriend, Lisa, was in front of me, they put her in a conversion unit and she was being processed when the Doctor stopped them.

“I got her out, brought her to Cardiff hoping for a way into the Torchwood here so that I could save her.  They found me and killed her.

“I heard just enough to know that they were thinking about experimenting on the remaining technology.  I used the emergency destruct I rigged, gave enough warning so that they, and I could escape and blew it up,” something in Ianto’s voice told Jack he regretted escaping.

“You couldn’t have saved her, she died when she entered the conversion unit.  You did the right thing destroying the remains,” Jack told him gently, the shrug he got back said that Ianto no longer cared.

“Please eat, I don’t think she would have wanted you to starve,” Jack said quietly.

Ianto looked at him as though he has said the cruellest thing possible, but he did pick up the food and eat.

The Welshman fell asleep again shortly after finishing as though the story and the food were too much for him.

Looking at him, Jack knew that Ianto was never going to last on the streets by himself, that he had no intention of surviving.

Having saved him from the pterodactyl, Jack felt responsible for the young man who an hour later began having nightmares.  He knew the pain and madness of survivor’s guilt and grief and felt an unexpected pang of loneliness when he thought of leaving.

So Jack stayed with Ianto and taught him how to live with nothing.  He introduced him to the friends and acquaintances he had made over the years and taught him the social order.

Whenever he spoke to someone, the Welshman was always polite and respectful but shy and reserved.  Every new person Jack introduced Ianto to, looked the immortal in the eyes to say this boy doesn’t belong here, but they welcomed him nonetheless.

Six months after Jack took Ianto from the Pterodactyl’s warehouse he was given proof that the others were right.

They were sitting in a doorway being ignored, when they saw a couple of thugs.  The thugs knew they had nothing but that wasn’t true for the lost looking woman in the dark coloured coat.

No sooner did the mugging begin but Ianto was up and heading for the thugs.  Jack told himself that it wasn’t their place to intervene but he raced after the Welshman anyway.

Surprise caught the muggers off guard more that the force of Ianto’s attack.  A lack of food and a greater lack of sleep had weakened the Welshman but that didn’t stop him trying.

The woman escaped and Jack was there to help defend Ianto as the muggers turned on them.  The thugs ran off but not before fatally wounding the immortal.

He returned from death and the first thing he saw were Ianto’s beautiful, tear filled, blue eyes.

“I thought I lost you,” Ianto said his voice croaked.

Jack pulled the Welshman’s head down and kissed him.

When they broke away Ianto looked stunned.  Whether because he was a man or because he didn't think he was worth kissing, Jack couldn’t say.

He got up from where his head had rested in the young man’s lap.  Jack made no apologies as he offered Ianto a hand up; but as they walked back to the warehouse he did give an explanation.

Jack told Ianto everything that night, his being a time agent, his travelling with the Doctor, facing the Daleks and coming back to life, being abandoned and coming to Cardiff to wait for the Time Lord on the Rift, his joining and leaving Torchwood.

He even told the young man how every Christmas he made a pilgrimage to London, to visit the Powell estate to see that Rose was well and happy.

How, on his last trip, he had detected an alien energy signal and managed to retrieve the Time Lord’s hand and preserve it before Torchwood One arrived.

Things changed between them that night. 

Neither man ever spoke of the kiss but they became closer than they were before.  There were looks, there were touches and both men knew they trusted and cared for each other deeply.

After a month Ianto began to tell Jack all about Lisa and Torchwood One, then about his family in Cardiff, things he had never told anyone.

Jack insisted that Ianto see his sister and her family but they just watched them from a distance before the Welshman turn away; they would be happier without him and safer from Torchwood Three.

When the harsh winter came, it seemed only natural for Jack to hold Ianto while he slept to keep him warm. 

Neither man considered using the remains of Ianto’s three hundred pounds.  When they couldn’t get enough to feed both of them, Jack made sure the Welshman ate while he starved.

Together they did what they could to keep the streets of Cardiff a little safer from aliens and criminals.

When Abaddon rose and they saw the devastation it left Jack kissed Ianto, shut him up in the nearest building and ran.

He found a piece of wasteland and called the creature to him.  Jack gave his life to save the people of Cardiff, to save Ianto.

When Jack returned, he was somewhere strange and his head was in Ianto’s lap again.

Ianto told him that he had been dead for days. 

The Welshman had got their things and they were holed up somewhere near Ronald Dahl Plass because Torchwood were looking for them.   Ianto didn’t think they would check so close to home.

Jack kissed Ianto Jones’ bearded lips for the third time and felt the Welshman’s passion in the kiss.  They held each other close until the Doctor’s hand began to move.

The immortal looked at Ianto Jones in alarm.  After what had just happened he didn’t want to leave the Welshman but he had been waiting so long to find out why he was unable to die.

“Go get your answers,” Ianto told him taking the hand and putting it in a back pack.

With one final kiss Jack raced towards the sounds of the TARDIS’ engines.

It was a decision that Jack would forever regret.


	2. Fall

After a year as the Master’s prisoner, Jack used one of the TARDIS’ bathrooms to get himself clean.  He then raided the wardrobe room for tatty clothes, things that would help him blend back into Cardiff’s homeless population.

When he emerged he could tell that the Doctor and Martha were surprised.

The Time Lord had told him that he was wrong, but a year in the Master’s hands, and their friendship, compelled the Doctor offer his immortal friend the chance to go anywhere in the universe with him.

“I have a friend I have to find,” Jack told them.

Both of them looked at his clothes again and knew that the friend was homeless, just as he had been, and that Jack really cared about him.

“We’ll help you find your friend and then they can come too,” the Doctor told him.

Jack was dubious about the offer; but the Time Lord led him away from the TARDIS and asked what his friend was like, so the immortal told them all about Ianto.

He hadn’t meant to say as much as he did, but he couldn’t stop himself. 

For a whole year the thought that kept him going was Ianto Jones, he had kept the Welshman’s existence from the Master and now he could tell the Doctor freely.

They headed for the warehouse that Jack and Ianto had based themselves in.  The immortal hoped that, if the Welshman wasn’t there, they would find some clue that he was still around.

Ianto was sleeping in the warehouse just as Jack hoped.  The Welshman had long ago developed the habit of sleeping during the day because he felt safer.

A quick glance at their stash of tins relieved the immortal’s mind.  There were plenty of them but they were different from the ones he had left behind.

He strode across to the sleeping young man and, crouching down, he stroked the part of the Welshman’s cheeks that wasn’t covered by beard.

Ianto’s beautiful blue eyes opened instantly.  They stared at him as though he was unsure if he was still dreaming.

“Jones, Ianto Jones I’ve come to take you away from all of this,” Jack promised, holding out his hand.

The Welshman took his hand and they rose together.  Ianto looked from Jack to the Doctor and Martha back to Jack. 

He peered deep into the immortal’s eyes.  Jack knew he would have flinched and turned away if it had been anybody else.

Then Ianto nodded to himself and suddenly sprung forward and kissed him.  Jack was stunned but he gripped the Welshman tight, and relaxed inside for the first time in over a year.

He introduced the Doctor and Martha to the young man and while they said hi, the Welshman merely nodded.  Jack kept hold Ianto’s hand as they walked back to the TARDIS with the Time Lord chatting the whole time about travelling with him and his adventures. 

The Welshman seemed conscious of the fact that he was dirty while the immortal was clean but Jack didn’t care.  After the hellish smell of the Valiant’s engine rooms Ianto’s unwashed scent was wonderful.

As Ianto entered the TARDIS only his eyes exclaimed his surprise at it being bigger on the inside.  Jack ignored the worried looks exchanged by the Doctor and Martha.

He took Ianto to the TARDIS’ bathroom, gave him a robe and told him that he would be waiting outside.  The Welshman was in there for hours and looked very pink when he emerged.

Jack took him next to the giant wardrobe room and told him to go and look for something new to wear while he did the same in another part of the room.

“Thank you,” were Ianto’s first words when he returned to the immortal’s side wearing jeans and a jumper.

“You’re very welcome,” Jack replied and led him by the hand to the medical bay.

Martha and the Doctor both wanted to look Ianto over.  After examining him the Time Lord gave him an injection of vitamins and antibiotics after the worrying cough the Welshman produced.

The whole time he was being examined the Welshman twiddled with a strand of his long, slightly curled hair.  The Doctor announced that he knew just where to go first and took them both to a famous barber, where they could also get a manicure and pedicure.

Martha asked the Time Lord if he would take her back to see her family while the other two were getting their hair cut and their beards shaved.  Jack was not surprised when the Doctor returned alone.

Both men emerged looking neater.  They looked shyly at each other for approval and smiled at what they saw.

Next the Doctor took them to dinner. Throughout the Time Lord told the Welshman more about himself and what he did, and Jack saw Ianto relax.

After dessert the Time Lord asked Ianto if he wanted to travel with him and the young man said yes without hesitation.

The Doctor broke Ianto into space/time travel very gently.  At first they went only to safe places where there were wonders and famous people to behold.

Jack knew the Time Lord was worried by how quiet Ianto was.  The immortal was trying to ignore his own fear that the Welshman had withdrawn from the world in his absence.

Those first few months began to prove them both wrong.  While Ianto was still mostly silent he demonstrated that if he had something important to say he would say it.

Also as the months went on he proved to have a very dry, slightly sarcastic sense of humour which Jack hadn’t known was there.  The first time Ianto deadpanned them they both stared at him, uncertain, until he gave them a small smile of victory.

Jack’s heart leapt with joy the first time they crossed paths with a bully.  Ianto proved that the protective compassion that made him go up against a couple of muggers was still there.

After those initial months the TARDIS started taking them to places where there were mysteries to solve.

Both Jack and the Doctor found Ianto a calm, steadying influence.  He would often think of solutions that the other two could not, and reined them in when they went a bit overboard.

Once Ianto’s place amongst them was established they had more dangerous adventures, alien invasions to thwart, insurrections to inspire and disasters to avert.

Jack felt that travelling with Ianto and the Doctor was the happiest time of his life, even better than with the previous Doctor and Rose.

Until the first time the Welshman was seriously injured.

The immortal sat at the young man’s beside, terrified of parting from him.  Jack held Ianto’s hand told him that he had to wake up, told him how important he was, how much he needed the Welshman.

Jack never realised that Ianto had been awake from the moment he’d first spoke, that he had heard everything.  The Welshman remained quiet until a few minutes after the immortal stopped talking before pretending to wake.

As soon as the Doctor pronounced that Ianto was well again, Jack asked the Time Lord to take them to a quiet little planet for a while.

They sat on a tropical beach and the Immortal told the Welshman everything that happened while they were apart, told him about Utopia, about the Master and the Valiant and, without realising it, Jack told Ianto how much the thought of him gave him the hope he needed to keep going.

Ianto listened in silence and held him closely as he cried, stroking his back and hair, kissing him softly to reassure Jack that he was alive and all was well.

Yet, despite the young man’s reassurances, travelling with the Doctor didn’t seem quite as much fun to Jack after that.  He would always worry when Ianto was out of sight and fret that things were too dangerous.

The problem was that Jack knew how much fun travelling in the TARDIS could be and he didn’t want to take Ianto away from that, not when the Welshman seemed so happy.

 

Two years after Ianto first stepped into the TARDIS, on the frontier colony world of Elpis in the Forty-Eighth Century, Jack’s whole world changed again.

They had been to Elpis several times before and would often split up and explore various area of the capital city, Pax.  Elpis was a hub of activity but well away from any major space/time events so Jack had no fears about being apart from Ianto.

After an hour of sightseeing, Ianto returned to Jack’s side, the Welshman held out his hand and said, “Come with me.”

Jack took Ianto’s hand and let himself be led thought Pax’s public transport system to one of the suburbs.  He had no idea what the Welshman wanted to show him, but he trusted him implicitly.

He was not prepared for Ianto to stop in front of a large house in one of Pax’s more exclusive areas.  Alarm bells rang in Jack’s head as they passed a ‘Sold’ notice and the Welshman produced a key to let them in.

Ianto toured him around the house talking about the changes he wanted to make and the improvements he thought were needed.

Room after room, Ianto seemed unaware of how stunned the immortal was, how Jack could feel the whole of his world dissolving with every word said in those beautiful Welsh vowels.

“Well what do you think?” Ianto asked.

“Marry me,” Jack said dropping swiftly to one knee.

“What?” Ianto answered, looking down stunned.

“Ianto you are the most important person in my life.  I’ve been in love with you for a long time, I love you more than anyone I’ve ever known, marry me?” Jack asked desperately.

The Welshman looked deep into the immortal’s eyes and gently helped him to rise.  He led him to the couch and dread filled Jack’s stomach as Ianto gathered himself to speak.

“I’ve noticed that you haven’t been as happy travelling in the TARDIS as you were.  I heard what you said the night I was injured, so I think it’s because you’re worried about me.

“I just thought you might be happier if we came here and lived together.  The Doctor said that Elpis isn’t going to be involved in any wars but that there are exciting times ahead.

“I figured that as neither of us come from this time and place, there would be a few adventures just fitting in; but if you want to continue travelling with the Doctor, then I’ll tell the agent to start selling again,” Ianto told him shyly.

“You’re not happy travelling in the TARDIS?” Jack asked.

“I love it but it isn’t important enough for me to keep going if you’re unhappy.  You see I’ve loved you for a very long time, more than anyone I’ve ever known and I will only be happy if you’re happy too,” Ianto answered looking deep into Jack’s eyes.

Before he could speak the Welshman stood up.

“Of course if the offer of marriage is still open...”

“It is,” Jack replied fervently.

“Then the answer is yes,” Ianto replied holding out his hand for the Immortal to take.

No words passed between them as they travelled hand in hand back to the Time Lord.  The whole conversation buzzed in Jack’s head as he knew Ianto was leaving it up to him to decide their future.

“Where have you two been I was getting really worried,” the Doctor exclaimed when the both appeared.

“Ianto and I want to get married and live here on Elpis,” Jack told him feeling a sense of peace settle over him now the decision was definitely made.

The Doctor looked from one to the other and smiled.

“Congratulation,” the Time Lord said beaming at both of them.

“As a wedding present how about a few quick trips to speed things along,” the Doctor offered.

Of course the few quick trips lasted a few months.  Jack got frustrated but Ianto pointed out that the Time Lord was unintentionally delaying things because he knew he would soon be lonely again; and both knew that feeling too well hasten a friend’s pain.

They returned to Elpis on the same day that they left.  They went to the registration office to marry with the Doctor as a witness.

Afterwards they took the Time Lord to dinner and though both men reassured him that he was welcome to visit at any time; both men knew however that he probably would not.

After dinner they went dancing.  The Doctor stayed for a few hours then, during a slow dance, he quietly slipped away.

Both men watched him go with a pang of sadness.  They held each other tighter, but neither man regretted their decision.

When they returned to their new home Jack asked.

“So which bedroom do you want?”

“I don’t know which do you want?” Ianto asked back.

They looked through all the bedrooms a few times before Jack stopped outside the one with the big French windows leading onto a balcony.

“This one.”

“Yes I like that one,” Ianto replied.

“Oh if you want that....”

Jack’s words stopped as he realised Ianto had taken off his jacket, waistcoat and tie and was now undoing his shirt buttons.  A small part of his brain called himself an idiot as he gaped open mouthed.

Ianto looked at him nervously.

A low growl emanated from the immortal’s throat as the Welshman closed his shirt up.  Ianto smiled the most beautiful smile in the universe, and continued to remove his clothes.

Watching Ianto undress Jack suddenly remembered one of the advantages of marriage.  Blood rushed to an area of his body that it hadn’t been visited since before the 1st January, 2000.

Naked, Ianto sauntered passed him into the chosen bedroom.

Jack almost tripped in his haste to undress and join his new husband in enjoying married life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I originally posted this story on Live Journal it was just a two parter. However, I had begun writing two one shot sequels that I hadn't finished. The will hopefully be ready for me to post tomorrow, and I hope to have the other finished soon too (though I am not sure because I have become very busy in the run up to Christmas but I will try). I hope that you enjoyed this part and I sorry to sandysan2013 as it doesn't answer the question she had in her comment (though to tell the truth I never thought it before).


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